The best speaker you ever heard?


In my opinion, the speaker is by far the most important part of the audio system. After all, it is the only part you hear. OK, the other stuff really matters a lot, but without a great speaker... No go.

I am a bit 'speaker-obsessed' I guess, and now I am wondering: What are the best speakers you have ever heard, and what made them the best?
njonker
The most impressive speaker I've heard was Isaac Asimov at Rutgers in the early seventies. I loved the Foundation Trilogy.
2008 CES- Venetian. MBL 101 powered by MBL Amps.
Incredible display of brute power. You never heard Pink Floyd like this.
Magneplaner 20.1...A very difficult and subjective question...my experience was when I was in an adjacent room when I thought there was a piano player at the keyboard....what I was hearing was a pair of Magneplaner 20.1s biamped with a pair of ARC Ref 300 and a VT100MK III. The source was an LP on a Clearaudio Turntable ?? ..can't tell you the cartridge or arm or cables....but when I thought there was an actual piano playing instead of recorded music, that was the critical mass info I needed.
The LP was a Mercury Living Presence solo pianist recording of Pictures at an Exhibition
MBL, with MBL's best electronics driving them. It was a hypnotic moment in audio, defying all preconceptions of 'recorded music'.
The old addage, that, "Nothing is live music, but live music" is correct--but that ineffable illusion of 3 dimensional, holographic recreation that I experienced, was not to be believed or understood--at least not by me.
My congratulations and ultimate respect to MBL. At this moment in time they are the "Masters of the Audio Universe."

Good listening,

Larry Staples
If ever there was question with no potential for agreement, this thread's question is it. I was about to add a speaker but realize it is useless.